and I quote "Non believers understand that most people believe"...is this true?

Question

or are there as many who don't believe but aren't as vocal about it? Thoughts and opinions?

sorry Gandalf - I was unclear - this was in response to another of my questions.

Fireball - I'm sorry, was this disrespectful in any way? Have I not shown respect prior? or are you lumping me into some big general category?

Kjelstad - I can definately agree with that :)

Answer 1

There are quite a lot of people who don't believe and don't really care to discuss it or voice it. When I told my friend Brian I no longer believed, and asked him what he personally thought, he said, "Well, I haven't really put much thought into it at all, if that tells you anything." That was his way of saying he doesn't think religion is worth his time.

Answer 2

I don't know that MOST people are believers in the supernatural ("gods" and such) - I would mistrust polls that say this because we ARE pack animals, and we are all aware of what the "law of the pack" is at this point in history. People are not likely to admit that they are individual thinkers to some stranger with a clipboard.

However, I would accept that a MAJORITY are "believers." Heck, at one point a majority believed that slavery was right, or in Europe during the "Middle Ages," that bathing caused disease.

It's only a matter of time before we get this "religion" nonsense cleared up, too, along with "capitalism is good," and "sex without a tribal ceremony is bad."

However, it's possible the religious will cause a cataclysmic war and wipe us all out before we get to that point.

Yes, I think there are MANY who don't believe but keep quiet about it because they are worried about the rest of the pack turning on them, or because they think "it's just the way things are, everyone talks about God, no point in raising a fuss about it."

Answer 3

Depends on the group we're talking about. Worldwide theists seem to have an advantage, although a diminishing one.

In the US I suspect you could make an argument that atheist + non-religious + agnostic + people who are in religions for the social benefits >50% of the population, but I don't know how you'd test that, since the opportunity for perfidity is so high on this topic.

Answer 4

I think most people believe in a God, but I think they have the wrong perception of God. Before I became a Christian I thought I was a Christian because I believed in God. However, I did not read my bible but occasionally and when I did I did not understand what I was reading. Mostly, I made a god to fit my image of what I thought God would be and was.

Answer 5

In all reality, there are at least twice as many non-believers as there are believers of any religion on the planet. There may be higher concentrations of believers of certain religions in certain geographical areas, but they are by far the minority of the world as a whole.

Answer 6

I understand that statistically speaking, only around 16% of the world population considers or admits to being atheist or agnostic. This to me, indicates that most people do in fact believe in something.

Answer 7

I think many say they are "believers" but, in fact, aren't. They want to be part of something so bad and church is easy.

Those who are believers certainly don't practice their religion. Christees are full of hate and enmity towards anyone who disagrees with them. They are bigoted, unyielding, intolerant, judgemental, vicious, arrogant and unforgiving. None of those are virtues last time I looked.

Answer 8

Yes... unlike religious who try to say that most of us are closet believers, the nonChristians (the term nonbelievers is very rude) do understand that most people believe in a god of some sort.

Answer 9

I just figure most people believe in some kind of god, since whenever someone finds out that I don't, most times they look at me like I'm in the act of punching a baby or something.
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Answer 10

Most people don't really think about their beliefs. They are taught not to. But I've seen, when they do start thinking about it, they start to see the contradictions and most of them stop thinking immediately, they force themselves to believe or at least fool themselves that what they are believing is right.